Denby Langley Mayflower - Gill Pemberton 1965

I picked up a few plates in this lovely design a few months ago, and have been meaning to identify the design for ages, which I have finally done.

I was drawn to this design as it seemed familiar to me. It is called Mayflower, and turns out it is none other than a Gill Pemberton design produced at Langley (Mill) in 1965, for the American market. Reminds me quite a bit of Arabesque by Gill.

More background on Langley Pottery below the photos.....

 I found some images of the tea ware which is part of this range on Chinasearch.uk:

Wikipedia has a good entry on Langley which this piece of background information on Langley comes from:

 Joseph Bourne & Son bought the Langley Mill pottery in October 1959. This merger was also seen as a means of preventing the Langley Mill pottery from falling into the hands of Denby's competitors. The purchase of the Langley Mill pottery by Denby resulted in a merger of two of the larger producers of domestic stoneware in England. Initially, the two potteries were operated as two separate entities, with their own sales policies and distribution systems remaining unchanged.

However, in terms of product lines, the new owners wished to impose a new direction on the Langley Mill pottery, placing a greater emphasis on the production of high quality kitchen ware and giftware. This period therefore saw a considerable number of new stoneware product ranges, some of which were targeted specifically at the American market.

In 1967 the name of the pottery was changed yet again to Langley Pottery Ltd. Principal designers during this period were the father and son team of Albert and Glyn College and also Gill Pemberton and Thelma Hague. In 1976 the decision was made to unite the two potteries under a single name, so the Langley Pottery Ltd. and Joseph Bourne & Son collectively became Denby Tableware Ltd.

By the end of the 1970s, the two potteries were beginning to report annual losses, with the result that they were both sold to the Crown House group of companies. One of the first decisions of the new owners was that the Langley Mill site should be closed and production transferred to Denby. The final design to be produced at Langley Mill was "Falling Leaves", an oven-to-table ware designed by Thelma Hague.

 Langley Mill pottery was closed in December 1982 with a special commemorative plate being produced to mark the last firing of the kiln and the sad end of 117 years of stoneware production. The site was eventually sold and the remaining buildings demolished in 1987. In 1997, the site was redeveloped and is now a small retail park